


I Won't Say I'm in Love

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F, more ficlet/drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 09:36:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12340098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: There's a prize for rotten judgement, and Mal's already won that. She confronts her growing feelings for Evie in the one way an Auradon girl knows how: with a song.





	I Won't Say I'm in Love

**Author's Note:**

> from an anonymous request on tumblr, dedicated to "I Won't Say I'm in Love" from Disney's Hercules

“…Mal?”  
  
Evie’s voice was right in Mal’s ear, setting off her tension and making her jump.  
  
“What??” Mal said a little too loudly, a definite edge in her tone.  
  
“Mal, I promise I’ve got you,” Evie softly assured her.  
  
She stood behind Mal in the water, one arm around her waist and the other holding her hand.  They weren’t even that far in, still in the shallows; Mal’s feet touched the rocky bottom, but still she fought to keep from trembling in Evie’s arms.  
  
“Ready to go in a little further?” Evie asked, resting her chin on Mal’s shoulder.  
  
“Not really,” Mal vehemently shook her head.  
  
“Okay, that’s alright.  Let’s go back for a little bit.”  
  
Now Mal nodded, moving slowly as Evie helped her turn around and doing her best to ignore the mental images of slipping and falling.  Step by step, Evie walked her back ashore, and Mal breathed a sigh of relief when her legs were on solid land again.  
  
“Good job, Mal,” Evie said proudly, draping a towel over Mal’s shoulders.  
  
“Going three steps into water? Sure,” Mal laughed dryly, sitting down on the blanket they’d brought with them.  
  
“For a girl who wouldn’t even go _in_ the water just a few days ago? Yes, Mal, you’re doing great,” Evie sat down next to her, absentmindedly tucking a strand of Mal’s hair behind her ear.  
  
Mal had just started to happily lean into her touch when Evie’s phone rang, resting beside them on the blanket.  They both looked down at it, both saw Ben’s name lighting up the screen.  
  
“…Mal, I’m so sorry,” Evie sighed, picking up her phone and staring forlornly at the screen.  "Do you mind?“  
  
"E, you’re on the royal council, and Ben and I have been over for months,” Mal said easily.  
  
“I know, but—”  
  
“Go ahead,” Mal smiled at her.  
  
Although obviously still reluctant to leave, Evie rose to her feet as the phone continued to ring, about to start off for the trees of the dense forest behind them to take her call in private.  She only got a couple steps away before she stopped, whirled around, hurried back to Mal’s side, and dropped down quick enough to give her a kiss on the cheek.  
  
“I’ll be right back,” she assured her, before going off and actually disappearing into the line of trees this time.  
  
Mal slowly reached up and touched her fingers to her cheek, feeling an electric tingle where Evie had kissed her.  
  
“…Oh, come on Mal,” she grumbled to herself, pulling the towel tighter around her.  "Don’t even think about it.“  
  
She told herself no, but the electricity didn’t fade.  In fact, it just coursed throughout the rest of her body, nonstop from head to toe. She knew this feeling too well, and grudgingly greeted its arrival with the heaviest of sighs, gazing wistfully into the trees.  
  
 _”…If there’s a prize for rotten judgement…I guess I’ve already won that.  No one is worth the aggravation, that’s ancient history—been there, done that.“_  
  
She heard the sound of fluttering wings, and looked over her shoulder to see a little flock of sea birds swooping in, coming to rest on the rocky outcropping of the beach only to—…start singing.  Of course they did.  This was Auradon. Singing animals were kind of a thing.  
  
 _"Who d'you think you’re kidding? She’s the earth and heaven to you! Try to keep it hidden? Honey, we can see right through you.”  
  
“Girl you can’t conceal it, we know how you’re feeling, who you’re thinking of.”_  
  
Evie.  Of course she was thinking of Evie. The infuriatingly beautiful one who sat in her seat back at Dragon Hall on The Isle, who had such a pull on her even way back then that Mal couldn’t stop herself from risking her life for her. Obviously, that should’ve been her first warning sign, long before anything in Auradon, but Mal was reckless by nature.  She didn’t heed warning signs.  
  
 _“No chance, no way, I won’t say it, no no,”_  she roughly shook her head.  
  
 _“You swoon, you sigh, why deny it? Oh oh,”_  the birds chorused.  
  
Mal whipped her head around at them, glaring viciously and cursing Auradon’s propensity for talking wildlife.  
  
“ _It’s too cliché, I won’t say I’m in love.”_  
  
She stood up, leaving the blanket to idly walk the length of the shoreline, comfortable enough to let the waves lap up against her feet but not daring to get any closer to the water than that.  
  
 _“I thought my heart had learned its lesson, it feels so good when you start out. My head is screaming ‘get a grip, girl!’  Unless you’re dying to cry your heart out…”_  
  
Like always, and like forever, Evie had been right there for her when Mal and Ben had called it quits.  Evie was there for her through the late nights of crying, arms around her and crooning a soft “You’ll be okay, Mal”.  She was there through the late nights of crying and stayed through Mal falling asleep on her night after night, emotionally exhausted and too tired out to keep her eyes open.  
  
The sea birds took flight, wise to Mal’s attempts at sneaking away from them and fluttering after her.  
  
 _“You keep on denyin’ who you are and how you’re feeling.  Baby, we’re not buyin’. Hon, we saw you hit the ceiling.  Face it like a grownup! When you gonna own up that you got, got, got it bad?”_  
  
Time had passed, and Evie had of course been right.  Mal came out of it okay, and Evie had been her knight in shining armor, holding her hand through it all. But Mal hadn’t come out of it the same, and neither, for that matter, did Evie. A cursed scepter on The Isle had brought them from enemies to friends, and a young king in Auradon brought them from friends to something more.    
  
The movie nights and ice cream eating that Evie handily provided to help Mal get through her first breakup continued to carry over even after Ben became the furthest thing from her mind. They found new ways to enjoy each other’s company, and found new feelings in said company.  
  
 _“No chance, no way, I won’t say it, no no,”_ Mal petulantly kicked a rock into the surf.  
  
The first time Mal felt that tingle when Evie’s skin brushed against hers.  
  
The first time a hug came with Evie nuzzling into her neck.  
  
The first time they found themselves standing a little too close, a kiss a little too imminent.  
  
The first time one of their hangouts actually graduated to a date, and all the dates after that.  
  
 _“Give up, or give in.”  
  
“Check the grin, you’re in love!”_  
  
 _“This scene won’t play, I won’t say I’m in love,”_ Mal covered her ears, but it was no use.  
  
 _“You’re doin’ flips, read our lips, you’re in love!”_  
  
She whirled around, looking up at the circling birds with a contradicting fiery glower and icy stare.  
  
 _“You’re way off base, I won’t say it!”_  
  
 _“She won’t say it,”_  the birds seemed to mock.  
  
 _“Get off my case! I won’t say it!!”_  
  
Mal knew better than that.  She still held the long nights of crying somewhere within her, and she knew better than to let herself get in too deep again.  
  
 _“Girl don’t be proud, it’s okay.  You’re in love.”  
_  
Just as Mal was seriously considering whipping a piece of driftwood at the flying menaces, they scattered, veering away in all directions as Evie returned back to the shore.  The two met each other back at the blanket, sitting back down just as they had been moments earlier.  
  
“I’m so sorry, M,” Evie smiled apologetically.  
  
“It’s fine,” Mal returned the smile.  
  
“I very politely told the king of Auradon not to call anymore today.”  
  
“…Evie, you didn’t,” Mal laughed in disbelief.  
  
“Very politely, Mal.”  
  
“Look at you, turning down Auradon for me.”  
  
“Auradon is nothing to me without you,” Evie leaned in and pressed a kiss to Mal’s lips.  "Ready to get back in the water again?“  
  
Mal felt the tingle again, buzzing at her lips for a moment before nestling somewhere deep down in the center of her chest.  
  
”…Yeah.  I think I am,“ she breathed.  
  
Evie slipped the towel off Mal’s shoulders and took her hands, helping her to her feet.  Mal carried only one thought as Evie’s hold led her down to the water, arm around her waist once more and electricity dancing all over.  
  
 _…At least out loud, I won’t say I’m in love._


End file.
